White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

The Zeleny Question: Smart or Silly?

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NY Times WH Correspondent’s Question at Obama Presser Provokes Big Reaction Online

During the president’s televised press conference on Wednesday night, the NYT’s Jeff Zeleny asked Barack Obama what had “surprised, humbled, enchanted, and troubled” him the most about the job, now that he was 100 days into it. Zeleny’s colleagues laughed, perhaps not in a complimentary way, and the online world zeroed in on whether the question was, as one site puts it, “brilliant or BS”?

Three takes from: MediaBistro, Christian Science Monitor and New York Magazine.

New White House Correspondent Chuck Todd Says Ana Marie Cox is Wrong About Getting Rid of White House Correspondents

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NBC WH Correspondent Chuck Todd

NBC WH Correspondent Chuck Todd

Elections usher in more than a new White House resident. It’s a time when the networks tap their new White House correspondent. For NBC, the highly regarded political analyst and editor Chuck Todd now occupies the NBC seat in the White House Briefing Room. While less than a mile away from his old perch at the Watergate as editor in chief of the Hotline, a back room backbencher of much political importance.   WHCInsider talked with Todd about his much more public role.  (He received an expensive old-fashioned shaving kit from a viewer when he won the NBC White House chair).   Todd won’t comment on rumors he will be getting his own interview show on MSNBC, but he proudly shares anecdotes of 5-year-old Margaret and 2-year-old Harrison.

Chuck Todd

Chuck Todd

Q. What surprised you most about being a White House Correspondent?

A. The lack of physical access inside the White House.  The high irony is we connect the two buildings, the White House to the West Wing.  The folks in the white house get to decide where you sit, where you go. It is not new to this White House, it’s a every modern White House that’s controlling.

Q. Compare Obama campaign access vs. The White House?
A. The White House is more open and transparent than the campaign but only because you cannot run the White House in a tight circle of just five people.

Q. How about your transition into this reporter role?
A.  I had a lot of real frustration.  I don’t think Ana Maria Cox got it right about getting rid of the White House Correspondents.  We still have a real value, but you have a lot of the good reporting outside the White House.  It is easier to report from outside the White House. [Read more…]

"The Gibbsnotist"

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White House Correspondents tell WHCInsider.com that Gibbs’ briefing room nickname is “The Gibbsnotist” for his ability to “bring the temperature down” and put some correspondents to sleep.

Watch ABC News WH reporter Jake Tapper and veteran WH reporter, The Examiner’s Julie Mason, on reporting from the front and back rows of the White House briefing room.  Tapper talks about the change in his relationship with Press Secretary Gibbs from the campaign to the very public daily briefings.  Both agree that WHC tweets are not news but a good source of information.  The tweeting birds you hear in the background were not added in post but birds serenading the WH north lawn.

First Lady to Present Journalism Scholarships at White House Correspondents Dinner

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Michelle Obama to hand out scholarships to journalism students at WHCD while Jennifer Loven, WHCA Prez, cuts dessert and gives back money to DC food bank.

This year’s WHC dinner on Saturday, May 9, has a new feature.  First Lady Michelle Obama will personally hand out the annual awards that are funded by the White House Correspondents Association.  By eliminating dessert from the menu, Loven says they will pass on $23,000 in savings to a local charity.  The Washington Post’s The Sleuth, Mary Ann Akers reports.

Will Former NSA-Employee-Turned-Comedian Wanda Sykes Make Torture Jokes at WHCD on May 9?

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The National Security Agency: Material for Comedy?

The National Security Agency: Material for Comedy?

Wanda Sykes, this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner after-dinner entertainer, used to work at America’s top intelligence agency, with access to some of the United States’ most dear secrets. While the WHC Insider cannot confirm she was an actual spy, she has confirmed that she was a National Security Agency employee.

The stand-up comedian known for her in-your-face and sometimes raunchy sense of humor once worked at the super-secret NSA, the signals intelligence operation located in Maryland, just north of Washington. (You know, the one that can listen in on your phone calls without a warrant?) We wonder if Wanda ever took a ride on any of these aircraft in the NSA official photo gallery. [Read more…]

White House Correspondents Dinner Guests – So Far

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As of April 28:

* CNN: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore
* ABC News: David and Susan Axelrod; Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff; Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management and Budget; Valerie Jarrett, senior presidential advisor; Jackie Norris, First Lady’s Chief of Staff; Leon Panetta, CIA Director; Susan Rice, UN Ambassador; Justice Antonin Scalia; Meghan McCain; Jon and Dorothea Bon Jovi; Kate Walsh; Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel
* NY Daily News: Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger
* Fortune: George Lucas and Glenn Close
* People: Sting and Trudie Styler, Miranda Cosgrove, Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker, Jon Hamm, Eva Longoria Parker, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Brooke Shields
* Glamour: Narciso Rodriguez, Alicia Keys, Kenneth Cole, Kerry Washington and White House social secretary Desiree Rogers
* USA Today: Tim Daly, Justin Long, Richard Belzer, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen, Dept. of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Michelle Obama staffer Jocelyn Frye
* Atlantic Magazine:Ed Westick (Gossip Girl), Newt Gingrich *
* Others: Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Anne Hathaway